6 Amazing Indie Video Games That Kickstarter Made Possible

#3. Guncraft

If you liked the idea of Minecraft -- a simple, flexible game about construction and teamwork -- but you really missed shooting people in the face, then either Guncraft or anger management courses might be for you. Guncraft is a Voxel-based game, which means that the same principles as Minecraft apply: The environment is totally customizable, and can be altered at whim. You can build whatever you want, and explore a vast world full of yours and others' creations -- it's just that now you can blow their shit up, too.

From that video, you can see player-made recreations of anything from fictional dystopias to New Haven, Connecticut, and all of them are totally constructable in-game -- and destructible. So sure, you can build fortifications, cities, bunkers, working helicopters and tanks -- but more importantly, you can ruin other people's hard work with a rocket launcher. It's like a multiplayer game of Legos where you don't get in trouble for kicking your stupid little brother's gay Eiffel Tower into pieces.

Although, I think they actually made a misstep when they assured us that every construction resets after the round, so you don't have to worry about destroying things. Sure, maybe you should have the option to save items like smart objects for restoration, but how amazing would it be if there wasn't an autoreset? If it actually cost resources to restore something? You'd have people truly invested in the world, just like reality. Buildings would be under attack by assholes, of course, just as they are today, but you'd also have organized guilds of guards protecting them because they had a stake in constructing them. It would be a world falling apart before your eyes, but always struggling to stay together. That's perhaps the most convincing apocalypse simulator to date.

#2. The Banner Saga

Kickstarter moves fast. By the time this article goes up, most of these projects will probably already be over. I'm going to check back in before this article runs and verify that all of the above games met their funding and are getting made (because Christ, this would be the worst kind of cocktease if all of these projects failed to reach their goals).

So you'll definitely be getting a chance to play those games, which is excellent, but you also lost the ability to say you liked these not only before they were cool, but before they even existed. (Dang. That's the ultimate in hipster cred, isn't it? It's no wonder they love this Kickstarter thing so much.) But if you're quick on the draw, you can still pledge to The Banner Saga.

And good lord, how could you not? The Banner Saga is somewhere between Dragon's Lair, Game of Thrones and Final Fantasy Tactics. It's a beautifully hand-drawn, animated adventure with turn-based tactical strategy set in a post-apocalyptic Viking world.

If you didn't start throwing your money at the screen six words into that last sentence, then you're either completely dead inside, or else you enjoy things that are different from the things that I enjoy, in which case you are dead to me. (Also, if you did start throwing money at the screen in a bout of consumer-based epilepsy -- you should probably pick that shit up. That's not how currency works. Come on, man, get it together.)

If you're anything like me, you've been waiting quietly with astounding and impossible patience for three things: another Final Fantasy Tactics, a return to classical animation a la Dragon's Lair or Symphony of the Night and the right time to strike -- because you've been waiting for 10 goddamn years now and there's only so much impatient, frustrated rage a man can take before he starts mailing feces to Square Enix.

But the wait is finally over. Somebody wants to give you an isometric, tactics-based RPG -- plus the apocalypse, plus motherfucking Vikings -- and all they want in return is 15 measly bucks. That's less than the cost of postage plus delivery confirmation for a single box of anger poo!

#1. Wasteland 2

OK. I'm going to be very careful here, because I've rewritten this section 10 times now, and every time it just turns into a sloppy curry of swear words, exclamation points and affirmatives. So here goes: Thanks to Kickstarter, they're making Wasteland 2. Yes, you fucking heard that right. Wasteland goddamn fuck yes shit god fuckin' A right motherfucking Wasteland 2!

YES. BALLS.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, and therefore not swearing prolifically at your co-workers and/or loved ones right now, Wasteland was the godfather of the Fallout series -- Interplay only made Fallout in the first place because they couldn't get the rights back to the Wasteland brand. Which means that a Wasteland team is, by default, going to be much of the same team from the first two Fallout games, working on what is essentially a new installment of the Fallout series. And even though I loved Fallout 3 and New Vegas dearly, those were Elder Scrolls: The Apocalypse games, not actual Fallout games. No, a true Fallout sequel would be a top-down, strategically based tactical combat game with extremely nonlinear game play, infinite replayability, sharp writing and absolutely merciless mechanics. And that's what this is:

And if you're quick, you can help fund it right now.

If, uh ... if you have any money left. Shit, this really shouldn't have been the last entry, should it? Sorry about that. Just tell your landlord that Cracked spent your rent money this month; we'll send them a voucher or something.